"Obama is dividing us as a nation," Langone said. "He's not bringing us together. He's willfully dividing us. He's petulant."

President Barack Obama's conduct during the debate over the debt ceiling has divided the country and will inflict damage that will last well after the battle is over, former New York Stock Exchange director and Wall Street stalwart Ken Langone said.

While he believes a debt deal will get done and in fact favors a plan closer to what the Democrats are proposing, Langone told CNBC that Obama's behavior has been "unpresidential."

"He is dividing us as a nation," Langone said. "He's not bringing us together. He's willfully dividing us. He's petulant."

The co-founder of Home Depot [HD 35.88 0.255 (+0.72%) ]sharply criticized the president for promoting class warfare through his repeated attacks against "fat cat" business executives and his targeting of tax loopholes.

In sum, the behavior is symptomatic of Obama's disrespect for the office he holds, Langone said.

"Ronald Reagan would never go into the Oval Office without his jacket on—that's how much he revered the presidency," he said. "This guy worked like hell to be president...Behave like a president. Let me look at you as a model to how we should behave. What does he say? Fat cats, jet airplanes. What is the purpose? Us versus them.

"The thing I fear the most about the future of America is...divide us, we all lose. This has got to stop."

Langone said people with his wealth should pay more taxes, but the debate shouldn't be framed as rich against poor.

"He is not acting presidential. He is behaving in a way designed in my opinion to divide us, to make us look at each other with skepticism, with suspicion. That is the end of America as we know it," he said. "The destruction he is inflicting by his behavior will carry on long after we settle the debt limit."

Nevertheless, Langone said he expects a debt deal to happen as the warring factions will keep battling until the final hour. He suggested that Congress follow the adage of "keep it simple, stupid" when addressing the problem and conveying the solution to the American public.

"The debt ceiling will be raised, number one, by next week," he said. "They'll come to some juncture where they're going to say, 'This is not what I wanted but it's the best I can get.'"

One solution he proposed is higher taxation, particularly for the wealthier in society who are getting benefits they don't deserve from entitlement programs such as Social Security.

Cuts to those programs have been an especially sensitive part in the debate as deficit reducers on the right insist some reform will be needed in entitlements while opponents on the left insist on higher taxes for higher earners.

Langone agrees with the higher taxation argument as long as those revenues are used toward debt reduction.

"People like me have to understand that it isn't business as usual," he said. "I think it's a travesty for a man of my success and my means to get anything from the federal government. I think I should pay more taxes."

Mean while I read the rural areas are down to 16% of the population according to the data from the last census. And are likely to continue dropping. We used to be a farming country, and though we still have great agriculture, people seem to head to the cities, where the jobs are, if there are any.

So we are becoming a divided nation between rural and urban too. Even in the 1950's more people still lived on the farm than in the rat race cities.

Great year for alfalfa. I can sit and watch it grow to a second cutting. Both my daughter and I can't believe how it is springing back up from the first cutting. Been perfect weather this year for alfalfa.

Many of my clients are extremely wealthy people, most are nice , some would make you a Trotskyite, but none of them with a straight face would tell you they are over-taxed. The problem is the vermin who rule us would take those taxes and overspend them as well. A statute limitation on federal spending along with a more progressive flatter tax system would suit me just fine.

I believe that highly motivated ultra wealthy people are bottom line motivated. Taxing them higher is not going to make them go on a lifeline cruise. Many will be motivated to peddle a little harder.

I was one of those people, once, Deuce (maybe not as wealthy as your clients, but I was a "hustler,") and I never, ever, even considered the "tax rate" when I was trying to figure out whether to try to make a buck. I just tried All The Time.

Hell, I hate to say this, because a bunch of old, and poor folks are going to get hurt, but maybe they'll get hurt less if we have a temporary delay of bill-paying, Now, rather than if we keep slip-sliding away into oblivion with temporary "fixes," and accounting gimmicks.

A remarkable study (Norton & Ariely, 2010) reveals that Americans have no idea that the wealth distribution (defined for them in terms of "net worth") is as concentrated as it is. When shown three pie charts representing possible wealth distributions, 90% or more of the 5,522 respondents -- whatever their gender, age, income level, or party affiliation -- thought that the American wealth distribution most resembled one in which the top 20% has about 60% of the wealth. In fact, of course, the top 20% control about 85% of the wealth (refer back to Table 1 and Figure 1 in this document for a more detailed breakdown of the numbers).

Even more striking, they did not come close on the amount of wealth held by the bottom 40% of the population. It's a number I haven't even mentioned so far, and it's shocking: the lowest two quintiles hold just 0.3% of the wealth in the United States. Most people in the survey guessed the figure to be between 8% and 10%, and two dozen academic economists got it wrong too, by guessing about 2% -- seven times too high. Those surveyed did have it about right for what the 20% in the middle have; it's at the top and the bottom that they don't have any idea of what's going on.

According to David Cay Johnston's new book "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)," the current distribution of wealth in the US is closer to that of Mexico and Brazil than any other countries in the world.

The US currently has the third LOWEST tax rate of any industrialized nation. Only Korea and Mexico are below us.Imagine if the US was made up of 100 people and $100 was all the wealth in the country.

1 person would get $34.30 each4 people would get $6.15 each5 people would get $2.46 each10 people would get $1.34 each20 people would get $0.56 each20 people would get $0.19 each40 people would get less than $0.01 each

... there is of course the 70,000 page tax code that God himself could not understand even if he had the help of the guy in charge of writing it (Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee – Charlie Rangle) and the guy tasked with enforcing it (Treasury Secretary – Tim Geithner). As the former is under investigation for tax evasion and the latter didn’t pay his taxes for years, with both suggesting they misunderstood the code, you begin to understand how complex it is.

All of this is thanks to lawyers, lawsuits and plaintiffs seeking easy money or to impose their will on others. But mostly the lawyers – not the least of whom are the slip an fall type who are willing to use the courtroom to harass and extort money from companies both big and small. They are of course a big reason that health care is so expensive, as doctors feel the need to do a phalanx of unnecessary tests to protect themselves from malpractice suits. They are also the reason that thousands of communities around the country leveled their playgrounds and filled in their pools over the past two decades. They are the reason the Corps of Engineers had not strengthened the levees in New Orleans in 30 years despite the danger and the money having been allotted. They are also the reason that a wheelchair bound 80 year old grandmother is seen by the TSA as potentially an equally dangerous flyer as a 30 year old Muslim man traveling with no luggage.

A statute limitation on federal spending along with a more progressive flatter tax system would suit me just fine.

The trouble with Congress is that you can never actually believe anything they tell you. Even when the GOP talks about a balanced budget amendment, they state that there would be safeguards to be able to meet 'emergancies'. The trouble is one man's emergancy is another man's pork.

With regard to statute limitations, we have already tried that with 'Pay-go' in the 90's. Instituted in 1990, Pay-go seemed to work. The budget was balanced by 1998 and the deficit for that period was reduced as a percentage of GPD.

In FY 1991, the Federal deficit was 4.5% of GDP, and by FY 2000, the Federal surplus was 2.4%.[3] Total Federal spending as a percentage of GDP decreased each year from FY1991 through FY 2000, falling from 22.3% to 18.4%. Deficits, though, returned by the last year PAYGO was in effect: There was a "return to deficits ($158 billion, 1.5% of GDP) in 2002".[3]

The problem was that once the budget was balanced, money started burning a hole in the pockets of the legislature. They started coming up with gimmicks like 'emergancy expenditures' in order to spend the money they had.

The Dems started it out with 'pocket change' and then Bush came in and ran the practice to a whole nother level. Obama and the boys merely continue the slide at an accelerated rate.

One would have to be demented or on a kool-aid sugar high to take any of the proposals currently on the board for settling the debt ceiling debate as serious. Even the CBO which merely scores what they are handed can't go along with the numbers submitted by either side. It's a continuation of phoney numbers, smoke and mirror accounting, and Pollyanna assumptions.

Here's my thing. I get tired of the rhetoric from Buffet, Gates, et al about their paltry tax rates. Every time I do my taxes, there's a field asking me if I want to pay more. It's one thing for them to whine about how everyone else should pay more because they are druglord-rich, it's another thing to write a check, lead by example and STFU.

I'm like a lot of Americans. I will pay more, but EVERYTHING must change. I will pay more and I want $800B cut from the budget RIGHT NOW. Gone. Close up shop. Send the bureaucrats home forever, done.

Space program? It was fun. It was a state-run industry, and we have enough ICBMs to blow our enemies away tenfold. Mission accomplished. If we can mine nickel from asteroids and make a mint, let Paul Allen, Richard Branson and United Mines figure out the next era of space exploration. Other than an early warning system for asteroid, comet and gamma ray strikes, I don't see how it is a national priority anymore. The Red Menace is our ride to the space station now. Sounds like we sorted that out.

Welfare? Six months and you're out. It becomes a temporary cushion for a life transition.

Combine fed income tax with FICA and SS and quit bullshitting us. Our marginal tax rate is 30% for everyone, since the Federals raid every "lock box" to pay for everything else. These ledger columns don't fool anyone.

There have to be cuts to all entitlements and the Pentagon needs an enema on weapons procurement.

Separate investment banks from regular banks and treat the regular banks as utilities. Limit the shit out of what the regular banks can do and let people make their own concsious decisions to engage with the Wall Street sharks to buy toxic, collateralized, securitized garbage that pays out a mythical CAGR of 20% a year.

Reduce corporate tax rates significantly to bring capital back home. Flat income tax for individuals with all deductions removed. I'd prefer the Fair Tax, but Americans love the state poring over their income statements and are more comfortable licking that boot.

I'm with Rufus on the need to get biofuels kicked into high gear at home. All the laid off .gov workers and scientists can learn to write business plans and get some of the trillions in venture capital waiting to be invested in growth industries. We have 300 million internal combustion engines that will gladly burn the fuel.

What's missing from this whole debt debate is behavioral change by the government. Sure, we can all get strip-mined for more revenue, but the current dynamic promises that the clown car in DC will continue on its path of profligate spending and total corruption, and that we'll be right back where we are in six months.

Great year for alfalfa. I can sit and watch it grow to a second cutting. Both my daughter and I can't believe how it is springing back up from the first cutting. Been perfect weather this year for alfalfa.

And just a few months ago Bob was bitching for me to quit sending the rain his way. Now he can bitch about plunging alfalfa prices.

They obtaining the benefits of life in the US, now without paying their fair share of the costs.

Fine and dandy. Let's get a VAT tax rolling. When the rich people buy their Grey Poupon, 5% of the price of every jar they consume needs to go to the Federal Government. When they drive their Lexus, 5% of the money they use to pay for the gas should go in the kitty to help pay for the roads they're using. Fair's fair!

The outlines of the answer, however, already are clear. Officials have said repeatedly that Treasury does not have the legal authority to pay bills based on political, moral or economic considerations. It cannot, for instance, set aside invoices from weapons companies to preserve money for children’s programs.

The implication is that the government will need to pay bills in the order that they come due. President Obama has warned as a result that the government “cannot guarantee” payments of Social Security benefits or other popular programs. Officials also have disputed the assertion of some Republicans that the government could prioritize interest payments.

They have a $90 Billion Bond Redemption on the 4th. I wonder if there is some mechanism that will allow them to do a simultaneous Bond Auction, and Redemption, and "technically" not be in default, even if only for a split second?

(CNN) -- The commander of Libya's rebel army was assassinated in Benghazi along with two senior officers on Thursday, rebel leaders announced just hours after claiming big successes on the battlefield.

They have a $90 Billion Bond Redemption on the 4th. I wonder if there is some mechanism that will allow them to do a simultaneous Bond Auction, and Redemption, and "technically" not be in default, even if only for a split second?

Rufus, if there's one thing I've learned about these grifters is if there ain't a mechanism, they'll make one up and laugh at anyone that protests.

... there's no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds.

Isn't about redistribution. You make it easy to do business in this country and people get paid. The ratios take care of themselves.

Create more opportunities for everyone and you create more wealth. The oligarchs who control the "two" parties working hard to keep the status quo and limit opportunities for others to "climb the ladder."

Peter King, Rep from Iowa, was just on with Laura Ingraham talking the same old "prioritize" the spending nonsense, when the Treasury has said, "We can Not Legally do that; We Have to pay the Bills As They Come Due.

Bob would be a perfect "Tea Partier." I thought they were being disingenuous. Now, I'm starting to suspect that they're, actually, really and truly, Dumb as a Box of Rocks."

Peter King, Rep from Iowa, was just on with Laura Ingraham talking the same old "prioritize" the spending nonsense, when the Treasury has said, "We can Not Legally do that; We Have to pay the Bills As They Come Due.

Bob would be a perfect "Tea Partier." I thought they were being disingenuous. Now, I'm starting to suspect that they're, actually, really and truly, Dumb as a Box of Rocks."

Unfortunately, the trend is toward Higher Unemployment, and it's hard to sustain a highly inflationary scenario with High Unemployment.

Don't jump on your keyboards and "remind" me of the Seventies. The Seventies was a special situation. Nixon had just taken us off the Gold Standard, and the world was sorting out the New reality of "Floating Currencies."

You have no clue. I lugged an M-14 around in mud up to my ass, getting shot at for 13 months for, if I remember correctly, $174.00/mo, and part of the deal seems to be that I get a co-pay worth about $24.00/mo on my generic drugs.

And, btw, I didn't see Jeff Immelt, or Warren Buffet over there; but maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. What do you think?

(CNN) -- The commander of Libya's rebel army was assassinated in Benghazi along with two senior officers on Thursday, rebel leaders announced just hours after claiming big successes on the battlefield.

In other news, three Taliban soldiers were assassinated when they opened fire on a Marine patrol in Kandahar.

The Wyoming Veterans Memorial Park already has memorials dedicated to Wyoming's military people assassinated during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The Freedom Memorial will be dedicated to men and women assassinated during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the Iraq wars, the Cold War and other engagements, and during peace-time service.

And, just to put your mind at ease, I paid more taxes in one good year than I will Ever get back from the government.

And, don't think I wouldn't have rather put that money in my own IRA. But, guess what, I was paying my share for the ones that came before ME, and left me one hell of a country. I was, also, paying for Pell Grants, and College Aid for ones that would come after me. I was, also, helping out some that weren't nearly as fortunate as I.

There's nothing more pathetic than a wealthy man whining about being "enslaved" by the poor. It's ludicrous, and it's delusional.

BECAUSE I READ MANY TIMES BEFORE THAT ELECTION THAT HE WROTE JUST THAT, THAT HE HATED AMERICA, HE STATED THAT ALL WHITES ARE EVIL AND HE WAS OUT TO DESTROY AMERICA; AND WHAT MAKES THIS UGLY PERSON MORE POISONOUS IS THE GANG OF EVIL THAT ARE TAG A LONGS WITH HIM IN HIS OFFICE AND IN DC.

HIS VERY OBNOXIOUS WOMAN THAT IS JUST AS EVIL OR COULD BE MORE SO THEN ALL OTHERS THAT FILL IN HIS CABINET POSTS AND NOW THOSE SOME STUPID VOTERS, OTHERS THAT WANT A FREE RIDE EVEN IF THE VEHICLE IS A WRECK AND OTHERS ARE MARXIST, COMMUNIST, SOCIALIST AND ALL REALLY HATE AMERICA.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND ALL OF THOSE LISTED ABOVE WHEN EACH HAS LIVED IN FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN ALL MATTERS OF LIFE AND LIVING AND FOR THE MOST PART MADE THEIR OWN DECISIONS WHERE ON THE ROAD OF LIVING THEY MADE THEIR STAND; IS IT YOUR FAULT OR MINE THAT SOMEWHERE AND SOMETIME THEY MADE A SERIOUS OF WRONG MOVES AND THEY BECAME BITTER AT THE WORLD AND AT AMERICA AND MOST OF THOSE PEOPLE ARE NOT POORBUT HAVE PLENTY OF MONEY.

This is your president's words in books written by him. Can he change his attitude, hate, and loyalty now that he is president. Can you not see by his actions that he has evil plans for our country. (Amnesty for 12 million illegal aliens)

Sucking up to Muslim murderers. Breaking our country's economy.

IT IS TIME FOR OUR COIL OF RAGE. VOTE THIS GUY OUT. HE IS TREACHEROUS.

TREASONOUS (WON'T SALUTE OUR FLAG).

Coil of Rage

When you've read to the end, come back and read this first paragraph again.

A Coil of Rage

The character of any man is defined by how he treats his mother as the years pass .... need I say more about this person below other than there is no character, no integrity but there is a ton of attitude and arrogance that defines his shallow past and hollow future .... I rest my case..

I bought and read Obama's book, Audacity of Hope. It was difficult to read considering his attitude toward us and everything American. Let me add a phrase he use to describe his attitude toward whites. He harbors a "COIL OF RAGE". His words not mine.

THIS IS OUR PRESIDENT -- HE'S RUNNING AGAIN, YOU KNOW! Is anyone out there awake?

Everyone of voting age should read these two books by him: Don't buy them, just get them from the library.

From Dreams From My Father:

"I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."

From Dreams From My Father :

"I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race."

From Dreams From My Father:

"There was something about her that made me wary, a little too sure of herself, maybe and white."

From Dreams From My Father:

"It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names."

From Dreams From My Father:

"I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself: the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela."

And FINALLY ........... and most scary:

From Audacity of Hope:

"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

It's become o so obvious we've been on an unlucky patch, we shoulda had rat running the country all these years.

But I believe I can improve on the minting a couple trillion dollar platinum coins. My engineer has a clay pit out by Boville with really high quality clay that they use in super hot industrial ovens and such. I'll have him get me a bucket full next time I see him and I'll mold up some clay tablets like they used for money in old Mesopotamia. I can mold 'em, then all we got to do is have an etching expert etch on there 1 trillion dollar tablest USA, and bake 'em up. An added benefit is you can't melt these down like you can platinum. Would save us on the cost of the platinum.

All we need is two or three of them and the country is "home free".

These is some wolf news in the paper and having solved the fiscal crisis I will turn to that in my next post, after some ice tea and a smoke or two.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission adopted a ten month long wolf hunting season in the Upper Clearwater River basin Thursday and also increased the trapping season beyond what was recommended by the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

The Commission, meeting in Salmon, lengthened the wolf season in the Lolo and Selway zones three months beyond what was recommended by wildlife biologists. Biologists have documented wolves are the primary cause of elk mortality in those zones.

A wolf hunting proposal from the Department recommended the statewide season open Aug. 30 and run through March 31. Commissioners approved those dates for most of the state but in the Clearwater basin the season will run through June 30 so it stays open through spring bear hunting season.

The trapping season was lengthened by setting the opening Nov 15 instead of Dec 1.

Commissioners also reduced the price non-resident wolf hunting and trapping tags from $186 to $31.75, the same rate as for residents.

Hunters will be allowed to kill two wolves and trap five.

There are an estimated 1,000 wolves in Idaho.

(o bullshit there are many more than that, they haven't counted the ones out on the farms or out of the wilderness areas -- bob)

Quirk, they aren't allowing poisoning of wolves this year. Though it may come to that. No bounty payments either.

Quirk, they aren't allowing poisoning of wolves this year. Though it may come to that. No bounty payments either.

Read a couple recent studies that predicted that if any wolves are killed in Idaho this year, the median IQ of all sensient beings in the state would continue to plummet.

It appears the wolves are right up there in intelligence with the native ravens and pigs, dolphins and whales having left the state long ago because it was hard to breathe and apes and chimps having departed millenia past because the place was so damned boring.

The death of the wolves would negatively effect the overall IQ since they register higher in IQ score than the slugs, Sasquatch, farmers and other homo erectus (Idahoan homos never having quite evolved to the level of homo sapien) that make up the majority of sensient wildlife in the state.

Rebel security reportedly arrived at Younes's operations room near the rebels' eastern front and arrested him and his aides early on Thursday.

Security officials said at the time that Younes was to be questioned about possible ties to Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Younes was Gaddafi's interior minister before defecting to the rebels early in the uprising, which began in February.

Jalil said that Younes had been summoned for questioning regarding "a military matter". He said Younes and his two aides, a colonel and a major, were shot before they arrived for questioning.

Killed while he and his aides were under arrest, by the security service of the National Transitional Council.

That's the rebel leadership, for those that may be confused of who the players are, without a either a score card or program.The same fellows that the UK has recognized as the legitimate government of Libya.

I just posted an article the other day Quirk showing that Scandinavians like myself have the biggest brains of all, and are the smartest. Further north = brighter. You ought to be ok there in Detroit, bout the same latitude as me. We need to worry about the folks from Arizona and Mississippi though.

The biological forms according to an old rule get larger and smarter as you move north. Holds for wolves, and people too.

Boredom? Detroit, where I hear the City is trying to seduce settlers to live in the war zone with money payments for living there.

Sounds exciting, all right.

Here in Boredomville I just made agreement with Bill Greene of Bookpeople who is closing shop and leaving - alas, he is one of our good ones --made agreement to buy his total collection of the Hemingway Review, published right here at U of I.

So when I get back to Ohio where there is nothing to do, I will get Aaron the tomato farmer to get me one of those all year anytime deer permits and I'll sit on the veranda sip my ice tea eat my potato chips read Hemingway Review and knock one over once in a while then call Jake the gutter to come gut him out then we'll split the meat three way, me, Jake the gutter, and Aaron.

Friction between the government and military, traditionally guardians of the secular state, has been fueled by the continuing trial of 200 military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

The "Sledgehammer" case, arising from an alleged coup plan presented at an army seminar in 2003, is one of several setting Turkey's secularist establishment against Erdogan's ruling AK party. Critics say AK has a secret Islamist agenda, an allegation it denies.

Some 165 military personnel, including more than 40 generals, are in custody in the coup plot trials ......A prosecutor investigating another alleged plot involving military officers on Friday sought the arrest of 22 people including the commander of the Aegean army, media reports said. It was not clear if the generals' move was linked to this....The Turkish armed forces carried out three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured the country's first Islamist-led government out of power in 1997.

Such intervention is no longer regarded as feasible, as the power of the military has been curbed sharply under reforms carried out by Erdogan's government with the aim of winning European Union membership.

I just posted an article the other day Quirk showing that Scandinavians like myself have the biggest brains of all,..

There is a drawing showing the evolution of modern man. I think it's called 'The Progress of Man' or something like that. I'm sure you've seen it.

As I recall, there are about seven or eight figures showing the evolution from Austalopithecus on the left hand side and progressing to modern man on the right hand side.

About the third figure over counting from the left there is large ape-like figure with a huge head. He is carrying a stick. It seemed to me that in a couple of the drawings I saw there appeared to be a Royal Coachman hanging from a line at the end of the stick.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States pressed Libyan opposition leaders Friday to shore up any cracks in their front against Moammar Gadhafi's regime, afterthe mysterious killing of a top rebel commander raised the specter of infighting among the forces hoping to replace four decades of dictatorship with democracy.

Warren Jeffs interrupted his Texas child sexual assault trial on Friday, shouting that his religious rights were being violated and warning the court it was stomping on "sacred ground"....

Jeffs, 55, is considered the spiritual leader of theFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America....The sect teaches that for a man to be among the select in heaven, he must have at least three wives.

"This is a sacred trust delivered to religious leadership, not to be touched by government agencies, no matter what," Jeffs thundered, referring to plural marriage. "We maintain the right of a free religion. You are now treading on sacred ground."

Apophatic theology (from Greek ἀπόφασις from ἀπόφημι - apophēmi, "to deny")—also known as Negative theology or Via Negativa (Latin for "Negative Way")—is a theology that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God.[1] It stands in contrast with Cataphatic theology.

In brief, negative theology is an attempt to achieve unity with the Divine Good through discernment, gaining knowledge of what God is not (apophasis), rather than by describing what God is. The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of mysticism, which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion or the conditioned role-playing and learned defensive behavior of the outer man.

Apophatic description of God

In negative theology, it is accepted that the Divine is ineffable, an abstract experience that can only be recognized or remembered—that is, human beings cannot describe in words the essence of the perfect good that is unique to the individual, nor can they define the Divine, in its immense complexity, related to the entire field of reality, and therefore all descriptions if attempted will be ultimately false and conceptualization should be avoided; in effect, it eludes definition by definition:

Neither existence nor nonexistence as we understand it in the physical realm, applies to God; i.e., the Divine is abstract to the individual, beyond existing or not existing, and beyond conceptualization regarding the whole (one cannot say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; nor can we say that God is nonexistent). God is divinely simple (one should not claim that God is one, or three, or any type of being.) God is not ignorant (one should not say that God is wise since that word arrogantly implies we know what "wisdom" means on a divine scale, whereas we only know what wisdom is believed to mean in a confined cultural context). Likewise, God is not evil (to say that God can be described by the word 'good' limits God to what good behavior means to human beings individually and en masse). God is not a creation (but beyond that we cannot define how God exists or operates in relation to the whole of humanity). God is not conceptually defined in terms of space and location. God is not conceptually confined to assumptions based on time.

Even though the via negativa essentially rejects theological understanding as a path to God, some have sought to make it into an intellectual exercise, by describing God only in terms of what God is not. One problem noted with this approach, is that there seems to be no fixed basis on deciding what God is not, unless the Divine is understood as an abstract experience of full aliveness unique to each individual consciousness, and universally, the perfect goodness applicable to the whole field of reality[citation needed]. It should be noted that this is also a kind of definition, namely that the Divine is an experience, which - because of the very definition of apophatic theology - the then Divine cannot be.

Ah hell, one more. If numbers count, I think it was either Abraham Lincoln or Walt Whitman, that said, "'God' must be pleased with the poor, he made so many of them." And the 'man/god' Jesus is reported to have said, "the poor you shall ever have with you."

One can only conclude, rat/like, that 'God' is very pleased with the poor.

Bob isn't however, whole thing kinda pisses me off. I wish no one poor, rather I wish all had enough to live a decent life.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.